The Lonely (The Twilight Zone)
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| "The Lonely" | |||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||
 Jack Warden and Jean Marsh in "The Lonely". |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 7 |
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| Directed by | Jack Smight | ||
| Written by | Rod Serling | ||
| Featured music | Bernard Herrmann | ||
| Production code | 173-3602 | ||
| Original air date | November 13, 1959 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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Jack Warden (James A. Corry) |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||
"The Lonely" is an episode of the American television series The Twilight Zone.
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[edit] Plot
In 2046, an inmate, named Corry is sentenced to solitary confinement on a distant asteroid for 50 years. In the fourth year he is visited by a spacecraft that regularly brings him supplies and news from the Earth four times a year. Captain Allenby has been trying to make Corry's stay humanely tolerable by bringing him things to take his mind off the loneliness. On this trip on the 15th day of the 6th month of the fourth year, however, Allenby tells Corry not to open a certain crate that has just been delivered until after the transport crew leaves. Upon opening the special container, Corry discovers that Allenby has left him with a feminine robot, named Alicia, to keep him company. At first, Corry detests it, rejecting Alicia as a mere machine; synthetic skin and wires inside. However, when Corry sees that Alicia is in fact capable of crying, he begins to fall in love with it.
When the ship returns, Captain Allenby brings news that Corry has been pardoned after a review of past murder cases, but they only have 20 minutes to leave. Corry, it seems, can return home to Earth immediately. Corry is delighted, until he learns that there is only room for 15 pounds of luggage, far too little for his robot companion, as there are seven other passengers on the ship from other asteroids. He frantically tries to find some way to take Alicia with him, arguing that it is not a robot, but a woman, and insisting that Allenby simply does not know it as he does. At that point, just as the rest of the transport crew is surprised at the sight of Alicia, Allenby suddenly draws his gun and shoots the robot in the face. The robot breaks down, malfunctioning, its face a mass of wire and broken circuitry which repeats the word Corry, and Corry's illusion is presumably broken. He then takes Corry back to the ship, assuring him he will only be leaving behind loneliness. "I must remember that", Corry says tonelessly. "I must remember to keep that in mind".
[edit] Other media
An audio adaptation of "The Lonely", featuring Mike Starr as Corry, was produced for radio in the mid-2000s; it was released on CD by CBS Consumer Products in 2007 as part of The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas Vol. 4.
In 2007, "The Lonely" was produced for the stage by 4 Letter Entertainment.
[edit] Production information
This was the first regular episode to enter production following the success of the pilot episode, "Where Is Everybody?" in selling the series.
This was the first of several episodes (including "I Shot an Arrow Into the Air", "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" and "The Rip Van Winkle Caper") to be filmed on location in Death Valley. Unprepared for the terrible conditions they would face, the crew suffered extreme dehydration and heat exhaustion and director of photography George Clemens even collapsed, falling from a camera crane while filming continued.
Coincidentally, Jack Warden would star in another episode of this season featuring a robot, "The Mighty Casey", also written by Rod Serling.
[edit] Further readings
- Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
- DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090
